Thousands of dodos died in deadly cocktail of faeces and poisonous gas on Mauritius during 'megadrought'

Dodos have long-since been known as one of the unluckier species in the animal kingdom, but a recent study has suggested they didn't have the best time of it even before they were hunted to extinction.

An ancient megadrought is thought to be behind the deaths of thousands dodos and giant tortoises which were found in a mass "graveyard" on the tiny paradise of Mauritius, the island to which the dodo was endemic.

Many of the island’s native species were found dead in a "soup" of poisonous algae and their own faeces, it was reported in the latest issue of The Holocene.